Team Herald
MARGAO: The Goyant Kollso Naka (GKN) on Friday demanded immediate resignation of Power and Environment Minister Nilesh Cabral for deliberately misleading the Goans only to cover up his failure to implement the Union government’s directives on solar energy.
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Briefing the media persons, Goyant Kollso Naka Co-Convenor Abhijit Prabhudessai pointed out that as on date Goa produces only 4 MW of power through solar energy while the Union government has set a target of 358 MW of power through solar energy to be produced in the State by 2020.
“To cover up his failure to meet this target of solar power energy, the Power Minister is misleading the people by saying that power transmission lines are required to meet the power requirement when in reality Goa’s power requirement will drastically reduce if solar power energy is tapped,” he said.
Replying to a question, Abhijit said, “The government has totally failed to motivate the people to opt for solar power energy and further pointed out that as per the Union government’s directives, all government buildings and even streetlights have to be solar powered first. “This has not happened and instead the minister is insisting on get power produced by plants using coal.”
Tapping solar power will provide jobs to around 20,000 true sons of the soil, argued Abhijit and said that all the fitters and even carpenters will be gainfully employed if the government implements the power policy in its true spirit.
Debunking Power Minister’s claim that the State has prepared a power policy, Abhijit said that the same minister had confessed to some journalists in Curchorem that there is no such policy on paper.
“The minister keeps uttering whatever he wants and claims that it is as per the power policy or else let him make public the power policy,” he said.
GKN Convenor Antonio D’Silva referred to the different statements made by Cabral over coal and double-tracking of the railway line.
“While initially he asked to show evidence of coal being brought, later on he admitted to knowing that 51 million tonnes per annum of coal is to be brought through Mormugao Port Trust (MPT),” he pointed out asking why the minister has to keep telling untruths.
Emil Carvalho said, “The cost of laying of the power transmission lines will result in power bills increasing by 14 per cent to meet the huge cost of laying these lines which amounts to nearly Rs 2,365 crore.” Further, he pointed out that Karnataka has flatly refused any permission to have the power lines going through the forest land.
While referring to the government records, Carvalho said that only 29 per cent of power is used by the domestic consumers and added that the minister is using inflated figures and arbitrarily claiming that 1,800 MW of power is used by the domestic consumers even though the power requirement of the State at peak hours is only 704 MW
Freddy Travasso pointed out that while Karnataka has refused to give away any forest land though 80 per cent of the transmission lines passes through that State, in Goa already 2,600 trees have been cut for the transmission lines.
